Intlxpatr Turns Twenty Years!
Welcome to our virtual celebration, old friends and new.
Twenty years ago on this very day, newly arrived in Kuwait, I joined a very lively, edgy and welcoming blogging scene. It was frightening to me, but I had my reasons. There were bloggers I loved reading – I started by commenting on their posts. It was like a salon, topics and views and opinions everywhere, and also some facts.
There is an old story about Martin Luther, the priest who nailed his ideas for a better church on the door, and while the church didn’t change, the community in which he lived was willing to entertain his thoughts, and slowly, things DID change. When asked why he would take the risk – being called heritical could end to death – he said (in German), “I cannot other.”
Stepping into the blogworld was stepping outside a comfort zone and expressing thoughts some might think better left unspoken.
C’mon in. Here There and Everywhere has always worked to be a safe place for exploring new ideas, disruptive thoughts and how to make things better. We’ve got great virtual refreshments and a safe place to vent 😊.
There’s a little bit of Soused Apple Cake left over from yesterday’s Fish Fry.
For those who, like me, have to be careful, we also have some relatively healthy finger foods:
Grab something to drink 😊
I miss our great discussions, and I miss the liveliness of the old blogging scene. I’m not so comfortable with the arguments and name-calling I find in other outlets, nor the need to be wary of those who are monitoring – and who are they, anyway?
Meanwhile, a good friend mentioned recently how political I have gone.
Honestly, in these times, even the apolitical are speaking out. I heard a priest today talk about his anger at the hijacking of the gospel, used for vengence and not for love. I found it very brave, those strong words. If we don’t speak out bravely now, the crushing forces seeking vengence and control create a world most of us won’t want to live in.
I want a government who subsidizes health care for ALL. I want science to recommend vaccines which improve our quality of life and save lives. I want corporations that have standards to meet for air and water and environmental protection. I want our police to protect the weak against the bullying and violence of those who think might makes right. I want to welcome the stranger, creating new textures and patterns in the fabric of our nation. I want every person’s vote to count. I want responsible, accountable, educated leadership, and congressional decisions created by working together to achieve doable compromises.
“Ich kann nicht anders.”
As a post script – this is my 5,900 published post 😊.
Do We Want a Bonehead Military?
Interesting article from AP today about a military unit no longer creating, practicing, working with drones, at the direction of the current leadership.
A strong military relies on capability. Capability relies on adaptation, mastering new strategies (and equipment), as well as intent, and will. You can only go so far on physical strength; today’s military challenges require mental agility and a big picture of the kinds of ways wars will be fought in the future.
We have recently witnessed The Mouse that Roared, a small, smart country that has stymied a giant for six months. When you don’t listen to your most experienced advisors, this kind of situation happens. When you fire your most capable leaders because they have the courage to disagree with you, and you don’t like people disagreeing with you, these things happen.
Lawmakers ask Army to explain why it told a military unit to stop specializing in drone warfare
BY KONSTANTIN TOROPIN AND BEN FINLEY
Updated Wed, September 2, 2026 at 9:10 AM CDT
19
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is pressing the Army to explain why it told a unit based in Europe to stop specializing in drone warfare, an order that comes as the world’s battlefields rapidly evolveand military tactics increasingly rely on uncrewed systems to fight.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade was building its own drones and practicing the kind of warfare that Ukraine has pioneered against Russia and that Iran has fought against the U.S. — warfare that has killed and wounded American troops. The brigade of 600 soldiers was set up in November to be deployed anywhere that drones were needed.
“We have deep concerns that eliminating this specialized drone unit will limit our ability to learn from allies, particularly the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and hinder our efforts to modernize drone warfare at the speed necessary to compete on the modern battlefield,” the lawmakers said in a letter shared with The Associated Press.
It requests a briefing from the Army to explain its decision and was sent Tuesday to departing Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff. It was signed by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio.
“This specialized unit was a prudent response in a moment when the character of warfare is changing faster than a conventional formation’s ability to adapt,” the lawmakers say.
They said they were particularly keen to understand the data, analysis and process behind the change after less than a year of the drone unit being active. They also want to know if the decision was based on guidance from Pentagon leadership or made internally by the Army.
LaNeve, who is filling in as the Army’s top uniformed officer, recently ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit. The move followed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sudden ousting of the Army’s prior chief of staff, Gen. Randy George.
Integrating drones into the Army’s tactics was a major focus for George. Last year, he and Driscoll had rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which pushed to add “modernized (unmanned aircraft systems) into formations.”
George, who became Army chief of staff under President Joe Biden, regularly spoke about the need to accelerate development of new drone systems and get them in the hands of regular soldiers, not just specialized units. Driscoll supported such efforts and focused on cutting the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones.
After George was ousted by Hegseth without explanation in April, he was replaced by LaNeve. This week, Driscoll submitted his own resignation and later said on social media that Wednesday would be his final full day on the job. A reason for his departure was not publicly revealed, but he was an ally of George, and his tensions with Hegseth have been widely reported.
“We are supportive of the transformative initiatives the Army has taken under Secretary Driscoll’s leadership in this area and would like to see that momentum maintained even as uniformed leadership changes,” the lawmakers wrote.
___
Toropin reported from Nuremberg, Germany.
The Wisdom of Don Tzu
Sometimes, the news just gets so crazy that if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Today I discovered the Don Tzu memes- fake Sun Tzu quote formats taking a humorous observation or deliberately terrible piece of advice and presenting it as ancient strategic wisdom from “Don Tzu.”
Have a laugh on me, from the wisdom of the Internet 😊
“The Cruelty is the Point”
I was singing to the choir, complaining to my old high school friend about the tactics and strategies employed by the Trump administration, against immigrants, against the press, and against any citizen disagreeing with this administration’s viewpoint. “It all seems so intentional, so cruel,” I said.
“The cruelty is the point,” he responded. It was short, pithy, but that was weeks ago and I continue to ponder the phrase. I wondered why it sounds familiar – my friend used quote marks – so this morning, I googled it and got this very thorough AI response:
“The cruelty is the point” is a political phrase coined by The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer in a prominent 2018 essay. [1, 2]
Origin and Meaning
- Coinage: Adam Serwer used the phrase in his October 2018 essay, “The Cruelty Is the Point”. [1, 2, 3]
- Core Argument: Serwer argued that the policies and public behavior of the Trump administration and its supporters were not accidentally harsh or crude, but intentionally designed to cause pain to marginalized groups. [1, 2]
- The Bond: He wrote that inflicting this pain creates a powerful sense of unity, pride, and shared identity among political supporters, binding them together through common opposition to outsiders, immigrants, and minority groups. [1]
Book Adaptation
- Publication: Serwer expanded his essays into a book titled The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America, published in June 2021. [1, 2]
- Themes: The book examines how modern political conflicts connect to deeper historical currents in the United States, including white supremacy, migration debates, police unions, and the legacy of the Lost Cause. [1, 2]
Usage and Legacy
- Political Lexicon: The phrase became a widely adopted descriptor in political commentary to characterize populist movements, harsh immigration rules (such as family separations), and rhetoric directed at political opponents. [1, 2, 3]
- Broader Application: Analysts and commentators frequently invoke the phrase outside the Trump administration to describe political strategies that rely on outraging rivals and signaling hostility toward specific demographic or social groups. [1, 2]
The original article in The Atlantic states:
“It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.”
I urge you to read the October 2018 essay, and the book. From the beginning of the second Trump term, from the the very first day with the horrifying Presidential Edicts, the cruelty has been increasingly woven into public policy. The policies are Anti-American, anti-immigrant, anti-women and anti-everything I was taught to believe as I grew up – That we are created and born with equal rights, male and female, black, white, yellow, red and all the glorious colors in between. “Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight.”
Our priest told us from the pulpit this week that we are “to carry the light.” Each one of us, individually and together, carries the light. We can choose to be kind. We can reflect “the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Trump and Mail In Voting
The man gave us all the information we needed to see this coming. He claimed he won the 2020 election, losing by over 8 million votes.
He was filmed telling a gathering of Evangelical Christians in the 2024 campaign that if they voted for him, they would never have to vote again. (Even then, it sounded ominous.)
Once elected, his first day in office, he fired the Election Oversight executives. Then, he fired everyone working for the federal government in his power who certified that he had lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
This man is corrupt. He has wrecked the guardrails that keep us from stepping over the lines of moral behavior. He has taken away penalties for law breaking. He has pardoned the very sort of people that he states he doesn’t want coming into our country.
But, most cynically of all, he works to deprive those of us who vote regularly, and vote by mail, of the very privilege he himself utilizes – voting by mail.
A selection of cartoon comments for your enjoyment:
21 August 2026 Ship Traffic Density in the Strait of Hormuz
Traditional wisdom at this point is to declare victory and walk away. Six months and no progress. Like the doctors say, “Do no harm.” Listen to your high-ranking military officers. Back away.
Something is Off
I’ll try to show you in screenshots. Since I started actively blogging again, my daily readership averages between three and four hundred readers, with an occasional spike, depending on the subject. One of the most exciting things about blogging is how I will write a toss-off post and it will attract thousands of readers, and I don’t always understand why. In truth, I’m always interested in my readers; this is a niche blog. I’m not selling anything. I write about what interests me. I’m coming up on my twenty year anniversary as a blogger, and I love going back and reading my old posts because I’ve forgotten so much!
And that’s why I started blogging. My Mother sent me a notebook of all the letters I had written to them from Tunisia, and as I read them, I was astonished at all I had forgotten. It was the dawn of the blogging era, I was new to Kuwait, I had time, and it was an exciting way to start logging what I was experiencing and wanted to remember, and to connect with Kuwaitis and other expats. It was a wild time in the blogosphere.
Once we retired from expat life, my life is a lot less colorful. My commitment to blogging lagged. I wrote up our trips, I would write some about our family life, I wrote about restaurants and life in COVID and our pets. I have found good friends in Pensacola, and my life is stable.
So suddenly, my dependable stats dropped dramatically, overnight.
This morning’s readership distribution:
Below is what my stats look like in the last 48 hours. Weird, hmmm?
Today, for the first time ever, even with the stats WAY down, I am getting more hits from China that the United States? This has never happened.
The whole thing is weird.
Job: A Parable for Today
Today, I opened my Lectionary to discover we are reading Job. I have special feelings for Job; I was sitting my my Arabic class at the Qatar Center for the Presentation of Islam when my teacher started talking about a character named Ayyoub, and Ayyoub sounded a whole lot like Job. This was a huge “Aha” moment for me – all the years I had lived in the Middle East and I never knew we shared the same prophets, and that the Quran related many of the same experiences as our Bible.
Job is thought to be the oldest writing in our Bible, and as I read it today, I read it as a parable, with Job standing for the USA, and the devil encouraging the Almighty to test Job. Job loses all his precious children, all this animals, all his wealth – and he refuses to curse God.
Job 1:1-22
1There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt-offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ This is what Job always did.
6 One day the heavenly beings* came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan* also came among them. 7The Lord said to Satan,*‘Where have you come from?’ Satan* answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ 8The Lord said to Satan,* ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’ 9Then Satan* answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’ 12The Lord said to Satan,* ‘Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!’ So Satan* went out from the presence of the Lord.
13 One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, 14a messenger came to Job and said, ‘The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, 15and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ 16While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ 17While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.’ 18While he was still speaking, another came and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 19and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.’
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshipped. 21He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
The Strait of Hormuz, 17 August 2026
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has effectively ground to a halt as a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires and recent tanker attacks deter operators. Daily transits have plummeted to just 3 to 4 commercial crossings—down roughly 90% from pre-crisis levels—leaving a massive backlog of thousands of idling vessels waiting offshore.
Current Traffic Status
- Daily Transits: Only 3 to 4 verified ship crossings occurred over the last 24 hours, compared to pre-conflict averages of 60 to 135 daily.
- Vessel Backlog: Approximately 3,200 ships—including roughly 800 oil tankers and cargo carriers—remain backed up and idling west of the waterway.
- Oil Shipments: Commercial crude oil and major petroleum product shipments are virtually non-existent as operators adopt a strict wait-and-see stance.
Just Kidding!
The hot steamy Fridays of summer are always a good time to watch for the news that the Administration does not want you to know.
This week, it is the admission made by the Trump DOJ that the damage to the Refection Pool was organic, related to the poor application of the reflecting pool lining, due to the rushed contract and and the no-bid contract to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago pool guy.
The waste, the sheer waste of this President, sickens me. Embellishments, fix-ups, gilded fixtures and statues are a WASTE. Washington DC was designed with a restrained style, a colonial style, not a mix of Saudi-gaudy and Western house of ill repute. And in truth, this administration has corrupted every corner of our devastated government and its bureaucracy, has created a national confederacy of ill-repute.
And all that fraud, waste and abuse is just wires and mirrors to distract us from this inadequate man’s maneuvering to be sure he stays in political power.
It’s tempting to look away from this endless, outrageous news cycle, so full of bad surprises. And it is beneficial for your mental health to relax, breathe, and think happy thoughts for short periods every day. And then, it is of dire importance to come back, catch up on the issues and use your voice.
If you are a protester, protest. If you are a telephone caller or texter, call or text your national and state representatives and tell them to stand up to this petit tyrant. If you are a voter, please vote, and help get out the vote to put these dangerously incompetent people out of positions where they can cause such great damage to our nation.
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Here There and Everywhere 